composed of a flat soffit, with a roll and shallow on each edge, the
diagonal ribs having a large roll between two hollows. The first
compartment of the nave arcade, which comprises two bays and the east
bay of the triforium arcade, correspond in their mouldings and other
features with those of the choir, whereas in the remainder of the nave,
although the elevation in its general design and principal features is
the same, the mouldings in some essential particulars, especially in the
use of the zigzag and the course of small sunk squares forming a quasi
hood-moulding round the arches of the great arcade, differ from those of
the choir. There is a difference also in the way in which the diagonal
ribs of the main vault was carried. In the choir the diagonal ribs of
the original Norman vault are supported on shafts, which still remain
and rise from the level of the triforium floor; on the east side of the
transept they are supported by similar shafts; in the nave they are
supported on brackets formed of two grotesque heads, inserted in the
spandrils between the containing arches of the triforium. The eastern
compartment of the nave arcade, with the triforium arch above it, which,
before the nave was completed, acted as an abutment to the tower arches
on the west side, as the similar and corresponding arches of the
transepts did on the north and south, must necessarily have been built
at the same time as the tower arches themselves, and, therefore,
naturally corresponds with them in the details.
The spiral grooving on the piers, a rare feature in Norman work, is seen
in the choir and transepts, but not in the nave, where lozenge and
zigzag patterns and flutings are used instead. The spirals are contrary
to the ordinary direction of those on a screw. The eastern part of
Carileph’s church no longer exists, having been replaced by a very
beautiful eastern transept. Until some important excavations were made
in 1895, it was generally believed that the choir ended in an apsidal
termination, with an extension of the aisles forming an ambulatory
round it. The foundations of the east end of the aisles, as well as of
the choir, together with a small portion of the choir wall itself, were
then discovered. From what remained it was shown that Carileph’s choir
terminated in three apses, the central one, which extended 27 feet
beyond the others, being semicircular on the outside as well as within,
while those at the end of the aisles had been semicircular only on the
inside, being finished square externally.
To Galfrid Rufus may be attributed the present great north and south
doorways of the nave, themselves, however, replacing earlier ones. The
sculpturing upon these doorways, and that upon the corbels which once
supported the ribs at the east end of the chapter-house, have apparently
been done by the same hand, and there is otherwise much in common
between the decoration of these doorways and that of the chapter-house
itself.
Skilfully wrought and probably contemporary ironwork covers the south
door, still remaining in a very perfect state.
On the north door there are sufficient indications to show what was the
pattern of the ironwork once there, and, indeed, with care and under a
favourable light, the very elaborate design may be made out. The
grotesque but effective sanctuary knocker of bronze, of the same date as
the door itself, if it does not invite the unfortunate offender to seek
for that protection now, happily, under more humane conditions, not
needed for his safety, will recall to memory how the Church in a ruder
age held out her saving hand, and interposed between the shedder of
blood, sometimes guiltless, and the avenger.
The death of Bishop Carileph took place in 1096, and an interval of
three years elapsed before the election of Bishop Flambard, in 1099, who
is described as great by some, and infamous by other, writers.
Ralph Flambard was William Rufus’s Chancellor, and whether he was
infamous or not, he was, anyhow, a remarkable man. We are told by the
continuator of Symeon, that he carried on the work of the nave up to the
roof--that is, that he completed the nave as far as the vault, including
the side aisles and their vaults, and probably at the same time building
that portion of the western towers which attains an equal elevation with
the walls of the nave.
[Illustration: THE SANCTUARY KNOCKER, DURHAM CATHEDRAL.]
Flambard probably began to build soon after he became Bishop, and though
that part of the church which is due to him might not have been finished
until near the time of his death, no material alteration seems to have
been made in the plan. With regard to the upper part of the western
towers, and the time when they were built, we are entirely left to the
evidence of the architecture itself, for nothing has been recorded which
has reference to their erection. The upper stages belong to a time when
the style called the Early English was being developed, and they may
have been constructed during the episcopate of Richard de Marisco
(1217-26), or even of Philip de Pictavia (1197-1208). Although the
towers have suffered much from weathering, and more from the paring
process, which, however, to some extent, has been remedied by the late
reparation, they are well designed and very effective additions to the
church as originally planned. In combination with the end of the nave
and the bold mouldings of Pudsey’s Galilee, they form a termination
which will not suffer even when compared with some of our finest west
fronts. The upper part of both is enriched by four arcades, two open and
two blank, of alternately round-headed and pointed arches. The towers
were, until the time of the Commonwealth, surmounted by spires of wood
covered with lead. At present they are finished by a parapet with
turrets, placed there at the beginning of the present century, which,
though faulty in detail, are, nevertheless, by no means unworthy of the
towers they crown, and add materially to the picturesque outline of the
cathedral when viewed from a distance.
Bishop Cosin, in his articles of inquiry at his first visitation in
1662, asks: "What is become of the wood and lead of the two great
broaches that stood upon the square towers at the west end of the
church?" (_Miscellanea_, Surtees Society, vol. xxxvii., p. 257). This
inquiry was repeated in Cosin’s second visitation, July 17, 1665, and
the reply made in the presentment of the minor canons, etc., was as
follows: "And as for the lead and timber of the two great broaches at
the west end of the church, Mr. Gilbert Marshall can give the best
account how they were employed" (Hunter MSS., vol. xi., No. 94). To
[Illustration: THE WESTERN TOWERS OF DURHAM CATHEDRAL, FROM THE WINDOW
OF THE MONKS’ LIBRARY.
_From a Drawing by R. W. Billings._]
this reply James Green, minor canon and sacrist, adds: "Mr. Gilbert
Marshall, Mr. Gilpin, and Mr. Anthony Smith, can best tell what became
of it" (Hunter MSS., vol. xi., No. 98). Bishop Cosin would remember them
as being on the towers when he was Prebendary before the time of the
Commonwealth. That they were never rebuilt is shown by Buck’s view,
published in 1732, where the towers are without spires.
The most important, as it is not the least striking and beautiful,
object in the choir is the large and lofty throne, built by Bishop
Thomas de Hatfield (1345-81) during his lifetime, for his tomb beneath
and the throne above. It is a structure worthy of the Palatine See of
Durham and of the mighty Prince-Bishop who erected it. The alabaster
figure of the Bishop still remains, comparatively perfect, clothed in
richly decorated pontifical vestments, lying on an altar-tomb under a
canopy whose groining is finely ornamented with bosses of boldly
sculptured foliage. Upon the wall at each end of the arch, and opposite
to the head and feet of the Bishop, are two angels painted in fresco.
Those at the feet hold a blank shield, but at the other end the painting
is too much damaged to allow the object they hold to be made out. The
whole throne has once been richly gilded and coloured, and contains many
shields with the Bishop’s and other arms upon them. In the construction
of the upper portion of the throne it is not well fitted into the space
it occupies between the pillars, and some of its parts do not quite
correspond with each other. The impression given by these incongruities
is that Hatfield used some pieces of stonework already carved before he
planned the throne, and that it possibly was, like the Galilee, not
intended from the first to occupy the position in which it was
ultimately placed.
Another beautiful piece of work of about the same period as the throne
is the screen behind the high-altar, commenced to be built in 1372 and
finished before 1380, when the altar was dedicated. It is commonly
called the Neville Screen, on account of a great part of the expense of
erecting it having been defrayed by John, Lord Neville, of Raby, though
Prior Fossor (1341-74), Prior Berrington (1374-91), and others, bore
some part of the cost. It was brought from London to Newcastle by sea,
and has always been spoken of as made of Caen stone, "French peere" as
it is called in the rites of Durham, being really Dorsetshire clunch.
St. Cuthbert is said to have had a more than usual monastic dislike to
women--though some of his most intimate friends were women--and
therefore to have built the Lady Chapel at the east end of the choir,
the ordinary position, which was close to his shrine, would have been
most distasteful to him. No woman, indeed, was allowed to approach
farther eastward in the church than as far as a line of dark-coloured
Frosterley marble, forming a cross with two short limbs at the centre,
which stretches across the nave between the piers, just west of the
north and south doors. The Chapel of the Blessed Virgin,[9] commonly
called the Galilee, was therefore placed where we now see it. It rises
almost directly from the edge of the river-bank, and is built against
the west front of the church. It is of an oblong form, of five aisles
divided by four arcades, each of four bays, the aisles being all of the
same width. The middle aisle is higher than those adjoining, and these
again are higher than the extreme north and south ones. The arches,
richly decorated with zigzag, are supported upon columns, originally
composed of two slender shafts of Purbeck marble, but now of four
shafts, alternately of marble and sandstone, the latter, added by
Cardinal Langley when he repaired the Galilee in which he placed his
tomb in front of the altar, having capitals of plain volutes, which are
very characteristic of the Transitional period. The chapel was entered
from without through a doorway on the north side, which has been
restored, the old one, however, having been exactly copied to the
minutest parts. The doorway is deeply recessed, the wall being increased
in thickness on both sides in the manner usual at that time, and is a
fine example of the style in use when it was erected. Access to the
church from the Galilee was also obtained through the great west door,
which was probably not blocked up until Bishop Langley placed the altar
of the Blessed Virgin there, and made two doors, one at the north and
the other at the south end of the west wall. The chapel was at first
lighted by eight round-headed windows, placed high in the wall above the
arches of the outer arcade on the north and south sides, and no doubt
had other windows at the west end. The three windows in the north wall
and the four in the south, originally inserted about the close of the
thirteenth century, when the walls were raised in height, have all been
renewed, so far as the mullions and tracery are concerned. It is
probable that at the same time five similar windows were placed in the
west wall, of which only two are now left, the others having given place
to three fifteenth-century windows. At the time when these important
alterations were made, the original windows in the wall above the arches
were probably blocked up. Their outline, however, is still to be traced
quite distinctly.
It must not be overlooked that the shrine containing the bones of the
Venerable Bede were ultimately placed in the Galilee in 1370, in front
of his altar. The bones are now placed in a plain tomb, having upon it
the well-known inscription, which, however, was only engraved on the
covering slab in 1830:
HAC SUNT IN FOSSA BEDÆ VENERABILIS OSSA.
There are some beautiful and well-preserved fresco paintings on the east
wall at its north end. They are contemporary with the building, and
comprise a King and Bishop, probably St. Oswald and St. Cuthbert, and
some tasteful decoration of conventional leaf forms, very
characteristic of the art of the period. The lower part of the back of
the recess, on the sides of which the figures occur, is filled with a
representation of hangings, the middle of which is now defaced, but
where, before the Dissolution, was a picture of our Lady with the dead
Christ. It is not impossible that the principal altar of the Blessed
Virgin originally stood there, and was transferred by Cardinal Langley
to the position it afterwards occupied when he probably built up the
great western doorway of the church. The site in question was, up to the
time of the Reformation, devoted to the altar of Our Lady of Pity, or
Piety, which may have been removed thither by Langley from the recess to
the north of it, which is surmounted by an arch with the dentel moulding
of a date apparently not later than the commencement of the thirteenth
century--a removal necessitated by his making there one of the two new
doorways into the Galilee. These paintings are not only of great
interest in themselves, but they possess a further one of being the only
specimens of fresco decoration in the cathedral which are now anything
more than mere fragments. The arches and capitals in the Galilee have
also been enriched by colour, among the designs being a zigzag and
spiral pattern. It does not appear that this kind of decoration had ever
been used to any great extent throughout the church, for very few
remains of it were discovered when the modern whitewash was lately
removed.
In the aisle, however, of the north transept, where the altars of St.
Benedict and St. Gregory and that of St. Nicholas and St. Giles once
stood, there are some portions of the pictures which adorned the wall
behind them, including, in connection with St. Gregory’s altar, the
upper part of a figure vested with the pallium. There are also some
scanty remnants of colour left behind the altars of Our Lady of Houghall
and Our Lady of Bolton in the aisle of the south transept. The site of
the Neville Chantry in the south aisle of the nave still contains
sufficient remains of the delicate and tasteful pattern to enable one
to judge what the design has been, and slight traces of colour are to be
found upon the arches of the arcade behind the altars in the Chapel of
the Nine Altars. It is probable, indeed, that the walls behind all the
altars in the church have been more or less decorated with painting,
though certainly it had not been used generally on the church itself.
The point of junction between the Norman choir and the
thirteenth-century work which connects it with the eastern transept may
be placed at the fourth pier from the eastern tower arch on each side.
The arch of the triforium next these piers comes close up to them,
whereas in the corresponding piers to the west there is a space between
the arch and the pier. The same feature is to be seen in the triforium
arch, which is next to the piers of the tower arch, which have five
shafts, the others having only three. It is very probable that the piers
at the entrance of the apse supported a larger transverse arch than the
others, corresponding in this to the great tower arch, and that the
supporting piers had, like those at the entrance of the choir, five
shafts. These piers, the body of which forms a part of Carileph’s Norman
work, untouched where they face into the aisles, have been encased on
the choir face with very rich and tasteful decoration of about the
middle of the thirteenth century. Above, upon each side of the choir, is
a figure of an angel under a canopy, that on the south side holding a
crown in the left hand, the other having lost the uplifted hand and what
it once held. They are the only two left out of a numerous host of
statues once decorating the church, and their beauty makes the
destruction which has befallen the others the more to be regretted.
After the Nine Altars was finished and the connecting part between it
and the choir completed, a new vault was put on to the choir, and the
whole of the original Norman vault was taken down. The reason for this
was almost certainly an artistic one: the sumptuously decorated vault of
the Nine Altars being of a pointed form, while the original plain vault
of the choir was semicircular, it would have been very difficult, if not
impossible, when the great transverse arch was taken down, to bring
these two forms into harmonious combination. It was replaced by one
which to a great extent in its mouldings and decoration corresponds with
that of the Nine Altars. This vault is in five compartments, and has
four richly moulded transverse arches in addition to the eastern arch of
the crossing. These arches are supported alternately on the main
vaulting-shafts, which rise from the floor, and on triple shafts, which
rise from the level of the triforium floor, and originally received the
diagonal ribs of the Norman vault. The diagonal ribs spring from the
outer shafts of the three semi-shafts and from the corresponding outer
shafts next to the main vaulting-shafts. The vault is quadripartite, but
in the eastern bay is an additional rib on each side--a quasi ridge-rib,
which runs north and south from the spandrils between the clerestory
arches, and unites at the intersection of the diagonal ribs. The
additional rib on the north side springs from a draped male seated
figure, on each side of which is a lacertine creature with its back to
the figure, and its head turned so that the mouth touches the hair,
while the tail curves towards the feet; that on the south side springs
from an angel. The wall ribs spring from shafts of Frosterley marble,
resting on inserted corbels or on the capitals of the Norman
vaulting-shafts. In the eastern angle of the eastern bay the wall rib on
each side springs from the head of a small canopy, which contains a
sculptured figure; that on the north side a demibishop blessing; that on
the south the upper half of a male figure.
Whatever difficulty, however, there may have been in collecting the
necessary funds for the erection of this noble addition to the church of
Bishop William of St. Carileph, first projected by Bishop Poore, no
expense or pains has been spared in its being carried out to perfection,
and the vault of the Nine Altars and choir, the last part of this great
work, with its enrichment of dog-tooth ornament of various and graceful
forms, and bosses of foliage and figure subjects, fitly completes the
building in a style no less beautiful and effective than the walls which
support it. It may be asserted without fear of contradiction that no
more effective or majestic vault crowns any church in our country.
The cloister occupies a considerable space of ground left open at the
centre, where the lavatory was placed, and was enclosed on the north
side by the church, and on the other sides by those various structures
which had relation to the household economy of the monastery and to its
domestic and political life. Around it, in the dormitory and refectory,
the monks slept, lived, and ate. They studied in the library and in the
small wooden chambers--carells, as they were called--one of which was
placed in front of each compartment of the windows of the north alley,
which, like the east one, was glazed, the latter containing in its
windows the history of St. Cuthbert. In the west alley the novices had
their school, where they were taught by the master of the novices, "one
of the oldest monks that was learned," who had opposite to them "a
pretty seat of wainscot, adjoining to the south side of the treasury
door."
In the treasury, situated at the north end of the crypt under the
dormitory, and which is still divided by its ancient iron grating, were
kept the title-deeds and other muniments of the church, in themselves no
small treasure. At the other end of the same crypt was the common house,
the only place where there was a fire for ordinary use, and which was
frequented by the monks as their room for converse and recreation, and
which had in connection with it a garden and a bowling alley.
In the chapter-house on the east side the monks met the Prior between
five and six o’clock "every night there to remain in prayer and
devotion" during that time. Here also at other times they assembled in
chapter to regulate all matters connected with the life within the
body, and to order the many transactions which as a great corporation
the convent necessarily had with the world without. Close by, on the one
side of the chapter-house, out of which it opened, was the prison, where
for minor offences a monk was confined; and on the other side was the
passage through which his body was conveyed to his last home in the
cemetery beyond.
Opening out of the dormitory to the east, at its south end, where a
modern doorway has replaced the earlier one, is a room which was called
by the monks "the loft," and which forms, in connection with the
refectory, the south side of the cloister. It was the place where the
monks, with the Subprior presiding, ordinarily dined, having beneath it
what was once the cellar of the convent. Beyond this, to the east, was
the refectory, or frater-house, standing above the early crypt which has
already been described, where the Prior and monks dined together on
March 20--St. Cuthbert’s Day. Whatever it was before then, though
possibly the original building still remained, in part at least,
unaltered, it was entirely reconstructed by Dean Sudbury (1662-84), who
made it into the library, transferring the books from the old library
adjoining to the chapter-house, and filling it with the handsome and
commodious oak cases which now furnish it. Near to it, on the
south-west, is the kitchen of the monastery, now attached to the
deanery, an octagonal building which well deserves examination.
Returning to the cloister, there may still be seen at the centre of the
garth what is left above ground of the lavatory. It was originally an
octagonal structure, the upper part being occupied as a dovecote. The
basin was begun in 1432, and completed the next year. The marble
stones of the basin, which still exists, were brought from
Eggleston-on-the-Tees, of the Abbot of which monastery they were bought.
The basin is not _in situ_, but has at some time been removed from its
original situation, "over against the frater-house door," where the
foundations of a circular, or octagonal, building were discovered in
1903, and with them those of an earlier building, square in form, with
the substructure of an earlier basin.
Before concluding the description of the church, it is necessary that a
few words should be said about the exterior. It has charms of its own
which, in spite of the disasters it has undergone in the shape of paring
down and refacing, still makes it one of our noblest churches.
It must be admitted that, on account of the removal of some inches from
the surface of the stone,[10] and the consequent curtailment of
mouldings in their projections and hollows, there is a want of light and
shade which much detracts from its effect when seen near at hand.
Indeed, the first impression made is perhaps one of disappointment. The
east end is especially flat and bald, and with its ill-designed modern
pinnacles forms but a poor clothing to the wondrous beauty which is to
be seen within the Nine Altars. But with all these drawbacks, when
viewed as a whole, and when distance has lent its compensating power,
the cathedral, its lofty central tower rising in harmonious combination
with the two western ones, stands sublime in its grand outline, and
fitly crowns the hill of Durham.
FINCHALE PRIORY
BY J. TAVENOR-PERRY